Faking It
by pandora-rose42
Summary: Kira knew she shouldn't steal it. She hated this. And running into another thief, handsome as he was, was just her luck. The blonde theif patted her shoulder.
1. Chapter 1

~ Faking It ~  
  
Written by: Jennifer Crusie  
  
Re-written by: Pandora Rose  
  
Chapter 1  
  
Disclaimer: Basicly and utmost the point is that I basicly almost don't own -any- of this, other then some made up characters for the use of this to base into the plot of the all-knowing Jennifer Crusie, the real author of the story. The characters of 'Mars' do not belong to me nethier.This is all for your enjoyment. And how everyone should know the amazing wonders of the all knowing Romance Queen, known as Jennifer Crusie. So basicly the only thing that belongs to me is this computer... wait, a minute... no, no.. this is mummy's computer... . damn.  
  
This is almost based on word for word, I am just warning you now. Some situations may be added by my own hand, but that is the only difference.  
  
"Talking, talking, talking"  
  
'Thinking, thinking, thinking'  
  
-exagerattion-  
  
A/N: Read and Review, pwease?   
  
Enjoy!  
  
***  
  
Kira Aso bit down on her lip and stood away from the painted wall, her long, bright, red locks braided and shoved aside her shoulder, soft blue eyes scanning it. Suddenley eyeing the huge Mona Lisa she had created as a mural, she had this horrid, squirmy feeling at the pit of her stomach. A feeling that told her that this foot-to-cieling painting of Da Vinci's Mona Lisa painted on Mildred Cassing's bedroom wall was what would send her to hell.  
  
God may had forgiven her for the Van Gogh painting in the living room in Tokyo, and for Casset's mural in a bathroom in England, and if she was really lucky she got off easy for the Degas in a Billiard in Philadelphia.   
  
But this was His last straw. "I gave you such a talent!" He'll scold her upon her death bed. "--and look! Look, what you did with it!" Kira could just see God's cringing and wincings already.   
  
Kira eyed it and went for her butterfly charm and shoved it in her mouth, gnawing on it all to nervously. Being on God's last nerves wasn't the least bit comforting. She could only thank Him that she had blinded her client into thinking it was a masterpiece and be getting paid for it.   
  
"Oh...! It's just like that!" Mildred squealed, pulling her stinky cigarette from her plastic-induced lips and squinted at the tall, menacing woman known as Mona Lisa. "It's just... so... mysterious... what is she smirking at, anyways?"   
  
Kira sighed with heavy regret and dropped her paintbrush. "Well... no one knows. He was a little out there" she insisted closing her paintbox. Mildred brought the cigarette back with a huff and knodded in agreement. "Didn't he, like, use to steal little boys and, like, mess with them?"   
  
Kira raised a thin eyebrow for a moment, before she pulled off her paint shirt. "Uh... not that I know of... so my check--?" Mildred stopped, her smoke midway. "Did you sign it? I need this signed. I want everyone to know this is a authenthic Kira Rose Aso mural"   
  
"It's signed" Kira promised, pointing the toe of her old, ratted Converse sneakers at the bottom where her scrawled signature lay. "Over here... now that check--???" Mildred breathed out the smoke, liesurely, clouding the room and her face. "You didn't sign it Da Vinci, did you? Wouldn't that be considered, like, forgery or whatever?" Kira pursed her lips, shaking her head. "Not unless he had a Otake Mural period we haven't heard of..." she took a deep breath. "So that check...?"  
  
"I want that name bigger" Mildred declared confindently. "I want everyone to know you painted this. I'm even going to keep your brochure right here.." she pointed to the tiny table pulled next to the living room wall, to Kira's gleaming mural brochure. "So everyone will know it was you.. and that I have a true Kira Rose Aso"  
  
Kira resisted on rolling her eyes, and choose to sigh instead. Milded's enthusiasm for her brand name flattered her the first few days, but from then on Kira began to get more and more agitated and annoyed by her client's rambling which was new since Kira was usually sweet tempered and let people boss her around. Changing the subject, she rubbed her paint-littered hands and said "Well, Cocoa sure was a sport through the whole thing"  
  
The red-head grinned lightly at Mildred's trembling tiny, long-haired chiuahahua puppy, a rich tint of cocoa brown fur littered over her, relying on her theory that people adored talking about their pets.   
  
"Her ears are almost covering your name" was Mildred's cold and disgusted answer and blew Kira's theory out the window.  
  
Kira sighed once more and peered at the shuddering Cocoa at her feet. She had done some exageratting to the puppy's apple-sized face making it leaner in the portrait, and had added a slight orangish tint to the chocolate brown fur that fluttered over her curling like chiuahahua fur would. Cocoa looked rather like a sophistacated dog in the painting, then the fat, curly cotton ball-like dog before her.   
  
"Sign it again" Mildred complained. "Sign it up at the tippy top with your ladder thing..." Kira already began to shake her head instantly, her long braid hitting her shoulders. "No. I promise you, they'll see it. They'll look at Cocoa and compare it to the painting. People do it all the time, look at the dog, then the picture"   
  
Mildred gave the artist a odd look. "No, they won't" she said almost triumphantly. "She goes back to the pound today" . Kira folded the paint shirt, a feeling of foreboding following, as Cocoa pressed against her old sneakers, brown fur contrasting on her white peasent skirt.   
  
"Cocoa- your dog- is going back to the pound?" Cocoa trembled at her name. "She's not my dog." Mildred masked a disgusted face. "You alway have puppies in your murals--"  
  
"No, I don't"  
  
"-- it said so in your brochure from the musuem, so I had to have one too, or people would think I'm a fake so I went and got the only purebred they had"  
  
"Cocoa's a purebred?" Kira peered down once again at the puppy who trembled with her gaze. "Brown, long-haired chiuahahua" Mildred explained. "She'll be fine back at the pound. She practically lives there. I'm the fourth person to adopt her"  
  
Kira just gnawed on the poor, little, golden butterfly charm.   
  
It made sense. Mildred did seem like the stuck-up woman who would just go and -rent- a poor puppy just for the fact Kira liked to paint canines into the midst of her murals. Typical. Cocoa looked up at her at this point, shuddering, pathethic as she was ugly. 'I am not going to save you' Kira thought as she spit out her butterfly charm. 'I am not one bit herioc. I'm shy and I don't need a attention-mooching dog, especially not a puppy who looks like she rolled in herion and took LSD daily'  
  
"C'mon, sign it! I'll even get a Sharpie for you..." Mildred went to turn and Kira felt a spur of her rare anger. "No" she insisted once more. "It's signed, it's done. Now that completion check -please-!"   
  
"I don't know... it's just--" Mildred glanced at Kira and stood back at the steely glazed eyes that hardened whenever she felt angry she felt which was from time to time. "I'll just go get that check, then" Her client smacked her very fake lips and went away. Leaving her alone with Cocoa. All alone. Kira tried to divert her eyes trying to think of something that didn't have to do with the words put, to, and sleep.   
  
Here was a mural, ugly but nonetheless successful, another chunk of money sent to her family and gallery, another few weeks gone from her life... Kira frowned as she felt her jean pocket vibrate from her tiny nokia cell phone, cutting her from her forceful optimisim.   
  
"Hello, Kira here"  
  
"Kira" her american secertary's voice cried through. "We have a slight problem down here" Kira glared at the puppy who pressed against her and remained piolete. "Really? Who would have thought?"  
  
"It's bad" Samantha insisted and Kira felt alerted, taken aback by the seriousness in her secetary's voice. Sammie did cupcakes and Danielle Steele books, not serious stuff. "Okay... well, if we have a problem we should fix it..." Cocoa threw out a pleading whimper as Kira peered down at her again. "What is it?"  
  
"Olivia sold a Rosie"  
  
Kira jerked up, her stomach cramping, and her head suddenley beginning to throb. In the background on the phone she heard her sixteen year old goddaughter cry out, "I still don't know what I did wrong!", and she just froze over entirely. Cold spread through her body like flames. "There aren't suppose to be anymore Rosies" Kira managed through clenched teeth as she felt Cocoa shift slightly from her position.  
  
Kira tried to bring oxygen into her cramped, throbbing body without throwing up. "Dad sold them all"  
  
"Uh-Uh... not the first one" Sammi reminded worriedly. "Remember? We couldn't sell it because it was of gallery you big Do-Do! Olivia cleaned out the attic, found it, and managed to sell it. The lady won't give it back to us ethier" Kira was about to squeak a reply through when Mildred finally managed to come back with the completion check handing it to her.  
  
Kira managed a 'thank you' through her frantic heartbeats and her closed throat. "Ask the lady again" she mummbled to the phone as she stuck her pay messily into her pocket. "I did, Kira. She hung up on me and when I rang again and then Edward Colins picked up. This chick's staying with him" Sammi's voice dropped in anger to sadness. "Edward was a old friend of your mother's. He's the one who alerted the lady about the Rosies and our gallery. He happened to invite me to dinner along the way"  
  
"Oh, lovely. At least one of us will get to eat" Kira's rare sarcasm brushed out from anger at her client and disbeilef at her situation.   
  
"No, heres the idea. I'd thought I'd accept, go, distract them and you could sneak in and steal it" Sammi explained over the tiny useful cellphone. "Then we can lock it in the attic again!" Kira's blue eyes widened to the size of saucers and it was becoming quite a big problem on the whole breathing thing. Turning away from Mildred, she hissed into the phone, "You do realize you do -not- get cupcakes in jail !?!!" her voice came out rougher then she had expected and tried for another gulp of oxygen. "And we are -burning- that thing the minute its back in our grasp. If I'd known it was in the attic---"  
  
"Hey, whats going on?" Mildred questioned from behind her, a foot tapping impatiently in the background. "Nothing" Kira grinned forcefully at her client. "Everything is just fine" Breaking from Mildred's gaze, the artist turned her attention back at the problem at hand.   
  
"I'm coming home. I'll be there in a few hours. Don't do -anything-"   
  
"We never do" Sammi grumbled miserably, and the phone buzzed as the two hung up. "I sure hope everything is perfectly fine" Mildred said, looking gossip hungry. "Everything is just perfectly fine" Kira tried to keep her tone under control, despite the pressure. "That's what I do. Go and make everything fine" she gave a quiet, delicate sigh. She stuffed her cellphone in the back of her pocket beside her check, and suddenley remembered Cocoa at the base of her foot.   
  
"Which will clearly explain why I am taking your dog"  
  
"Huh?" Mildred exclaimed, but the red-head already bent down and picked Cocoa right up, drooping her body over her arm quite awkwardly. Kira hadn't a clue how to hold a dog. She hadn't a clue why she was doing this. She never had a pet before.   
  
"I'm just saving you a trip to the pound and a guilty conscience" Kira grinned pleasently, thinking she must be crazy taking this woman's dog and acting like this. It had to be the pressure and having to be in the presence of this woman for three weeks. "Have a Nice Day" she carted her paintbox and the puppy to her well-used, beat up mini-van, boiling with frght and anger at the world and her problems quietly.  
  
It all brought a bitter taste to her mouth, and she didn't like it one bit. Being anger was just not Kira's fortay. Quite and comforting, sure, pouty and sulky, why not?, but angry and sarcastic...? Kira had never actually acted like that before unless she was under the pressure and instinct to do so, like around her first stepfather or Mildred.   
  
Once in the seat beside Kira, Cocoa began to whimper in fright as shuddering constantly at the same time. "Oh, stop" Kira chided good naturedly pulling out of Mildred's driveway, thankfully. "No complaining. Anything's better then jail"  
  
Cocoa looked at her kidnapper with a strange, quizzical stare.  
  
"Pound. I meant pound" Kira grumbled, as she explained to the tiny dog and babbled on to the tremulous long haired chiuahahua all the way to the Aso Gallery.  
  
...........  
  
By the time they pulled up, Cocoa was dead asleep and Kira was feeling surprisingly calmer. Hey, she could at least breath now. Shutting the car off, Cocoa jerked awake, her chocolate brown marbles blinking unsurely.   
  
Kira scooped her up, the dog now heaving with anxiety attacks into the shabby gallery office and deposited him on the floor in front of her secertary and her goddaughter, both of them blonde, blue eyed and absolutely gorgeous, despite their obvious age differences. 'Definately not me' Kira thought as Cocoa squirmed unsurely on the tile.   
  
"This is Cocoa" she announced to Sammi and Olivia. "I'm keeping her with me until we can find her some people who won't throw her into a river without diginity the whole while her back is turn"  
  
"I said I was -sorry-!" Olivia insisted, her pretty face stubborn under her long blonde locks. Kira guessed her sarcastic and angry mood hadn't dissolved. Olivia crossed her arms, wearing a black shirt with the crooked letters that declared 'PROM SUCKS' in silver spiked words. Yet she still looked like a angel in punk clothes. The resemblance to her mother was quite amazing. Harumi ,who had worked at the gallery for awhile and ended up boarding and getting married and then divorced, was one of Kira's best friends in the entire world and when Harumi had gotten pregnant she was instantly granted godmother duties.   
  
"Why can't we sell painting? We -are- a -gallery- , for cripe's sakes" Olivia emphasized against her aunt-like godmother, crouching down on the old peach rug to pet the trembling puppy who heaved for oxygen, backing up against Kira's legs. "What is wrong with this dog?"  
  
'So many things' thought Kira as she turned back to the problem at hand. "Okay... it's alright... just... tell me about the painting, guys" her voice dropped to a softer tone, her more usual conversation voice, a forgiving lint to it.   
  
Sammie sighed, ruffling her lovely short blonde locks. Even at the old age of her forties, she still looked good. "While you were in Otake, Yuta sent Olivia up to the attic to clean because Olivia broke a curfew" Kira just bit her lip as Sammi mentioned Harumi's ex-husband, who ended up being gay and owning a gay bar down in the city of Tokyo, but who still boarded in the gallery, remaining close friends with his ex-wife and a good father to Olivia.   
  
"Oh, stop looking pissed off" Olivia insisted, patting the shaking puppy wrinkling her cute nose. "Daddy didn't let me anywhere near your locked part , so I still haven't a clue what you have hidden up there"   
  
"Storage" the answer came automatic to Kira as Olivia rolled her sapphire-like eyes. "Yeah... right, Kira"   
  
"Olivia" Kira caught herself crossing her arms as a strong parental flare flung up. Harumi spoiled Olivia, Kira knew that well, and so did her father. Kira had felt the obligation to take up the status of a motherly figure to the rowdy teenager holding down some hand since she had ended up spending most of her time with her as a child when Harumi or Yuta worked. At the gaze, the girl bit her lip and straightened.   
  
"Your not in the position to fool around here. Your pushing it. And when your mother finds out...Now, please. Back to the painting"   
  
"Daddy made me clean up the attic." Olivia sighed, explaining fully and finally. "It was full of old painted furniture with animals. Daddy said you did all of that when you were in high school. It was pretty nifty, especially the Adam and Eve bed, after we set it up---"  
  
"-We-?" Sammi and Kira broke off Olivia's justification for a sold painting. "Yusaku and me" Olivia blinked unnsurely at the adults, mentioning her best friend in the entire world. "You didn't think I would clean the entire, rat-infested attic by -myself- did you?"  
  
"Great... Yusaku knows" Kira comphrended slowly and rubbed her temple as she mentally cursed Yuta on sending his daughter and close non-family friend up to a secertive attic. "Well, yeah" Olivia mumbled. "He knows theres furniture down there. What's with the attic, anyways? It's -just- furniture" Kira felt her muscles in her jaw clench and stuck her smal handy charm back in her mouth.   
  
"Right.. the painting, Liv?"   
  
"It was near the painted furniture" Olivia said. "Wrapped in brown paper and shoved against the blue monkey armchair. Kira, did you really paint those things up there?"  
  
"It's just junk, Liv." Kira managed through constant chewing of her charm. "I was going through a odd phase. So, you took the painting...?"  
  
"I thought they were nifty.. So did Yusaku" Olivia insisted crosing her arms as she kneeled down next to Cocoa, who began to lighten up to the youngest girl in the gallery.   
  
"So, you sold it?"  
  
Olivia sighed, her plan on convientantly changing the subject failing. "Uh-uh. We put it ack after dusting and went to the Coffee Shop for some cappucinos. And then Sammi had to go to the grocery store, so I took the counter and Mrs.Kamiya came and asked for a Rosie. I told her all we had were Fuyumi Takahasis" Olivia broke from her livid chatter, to peer at Sammi, who sat exasperated in her chair.   
  
"Are we to ever be rid of those? I know she boards here and all, but their painting of -vomit- for heavensake--"  
  
"OLIVIA!"  
  
"Okay! Cool it" Olivia shuffled her feet, nervously. "And Mrs.Kamiya said no, thanks, she was looking for a painting of a kid like me would do and started talking about swirly clouds, purple stars, and checkerboards. Yusaku then said it sounded an awful lot like the painting up in the attic and since he said that the lady wouldn't budge"  
  
Kira raised an eyebrow, knowing her goddaughter and her best friend all to well. "Yusaku said this?"  
  
"Maybe me" Olivia squinted, innocently, wringing her ring-encrusted hands. "It's all very foggy, you know, it was just this morning..."  
  
"Oh, please. As if Yusaku wouldn't eat swords for you" Sammi broke off. "So you went to get the painting...?"  
  
"And she offered me a hundred bucks for it, and I said no" Olivia beamed virtuously, beaming slightly proud of herself. "But, yet, I see no painting" Kira raised an eyebrow to her goddaughter. "She kept going higher and higher but at a thousand american dollars, I caved" Olivia gave in shurgging her thin shoulders. "Now, may I ask, why getting a thousand dollars for a crappy painting is bad?"  
  
"No" Sammi got up off the chair just to go collaspe on the customer waiting couch, propping her feet up in exasperation, looking lovely even in her forties.   
  
"Where's your mother?" Kira mentioned her best friend, rubbing her temples. "Isn't she suppose to be in charge of the gallery while Sammi is out?"   
  
"She's out racing" Sammie grumbled rolling her eyes and answering for Olivia. "Oh, the cycle again. Wheeling before the rainy season.. Look, it doesn't matter. This Kamiya lady looks like she won't give in any time soon. And if we fight, Kira, it'll look suspicious"  
  
"Suspicous of what?!" Olivia cried out, agitated to no end. "No one tells me anything in this stupid gallery!" the girl scooped Cocoa off the floor and into her arms, shuddering replinishing in the tiny dog body. "If you tell me what I did wrong you can't truly blame me!"  
  
Kira sighed peering around the large four story gallery building and bit her lip as she starred at Olivia's pouted face before going back to her gallery. All of this could put her beloved Gallery all into jeopardy....  
  
After her first stepfather had died, Kira had felt like something was cut loose from her. Freedom rang in her years. She was in her junior year when he had passed and her nightmares were gone. The man was a rapist, using the young girl to do what he pleased and Kira had remembered those awful nights in pain and agony and could only represent that pain and agony through her art.  
  
Kira could paint beautifully, inheriting it from her real father who was also a artist, and she thanked him everyday for that. She couldn't live without art. Especially after her mom had remarried again, remarried to a man with a art gallery. Their family was failing without money, and her mother could do only one thing for them to survive and that was to marry.   
  
In the middle of her senior year, Kira's mother had moved them to Tokyo and into this huge art gallery, a haven for Kira. She had spent good months here, until her second stepfather had found her talent of art. Things had went downhill from there, as he suddenley began to use her amazing talents for wrong uses. Using her just like her first stepfather had, only not in body, but in her beloved art. He abused her, worked her, until Kira couldn't stand it anymore.  
  
She wouldn't be treated like that any longer. She wouldn't. She never planned to. So she threw aside her father's evil plans, packed up, and moved out all in the tender age of seventeen. Sammi was there then, and had helped her with the transistion and Harumi had moved up with her to keep her company and the two helped with money corporating together. Then her mother hit critical condition, and her stepfather and her had to move to America.   
  
Her stepfather had left the Gallery to her.  
  
And it had been the Aso Gallery ever since.  
  
Yet her past never left her alone. Especially at such crucial times. She sniffled slightly, as Olivia cuddled Cocoa as she flared at her godmother and Kira sighed knowing the sixteen year old... needed to know by now.   
  
Pulling out Sammi's vacant chair, Kira looked up at Olivia with a focused look, as she sat down. "Okay, then. Here it is"  
  
"Kira, no" Sammi insisted beneath her hands massaging her troubled face. "She's only sixteen" Kira just shook her head. "And how old was I, Sammi?" Kira mummured. "I can't remember a time I didn't know"  
  
"Hello...?" Olivia waved at the two, looking more agitated as the minutes passed, Cocoa hiding in the shelter of Olivia chin and her long curtain of hair. "I'm right here... know what?" she questioned knowing something juicy was about to be introduced to her. Kira took a big breath and placed her hands together wondering where to start.  
  
"Do you remember... how successfully this gallery use to be when my stepdad ran it?" Kira asked slowly eyeing the teenager. "No" Olivia replied, truthfully. "I was just a kid when he left. I wasn't really into the gallery thing then" She relaxed her grasp on Cocoa, who was shuddering insistantly beneath her chin and hair. Cocoa feeling the, release on her hold, wriggled instantly to get down and hit the rug with a splat, balancing and recovering by putting her paws on Kira's legs.   
  
"Well... the one of the reasons my dad made this place so successful was because he sometimes... sold fakes"  
  
"Oh" Olivia said.  
  
"That's good" Sammi grumbled, depressed as she sat up crossing her legs. "The more people who know about this.. lemme tell you, it's for the -better-" Olivia squinted at Sammi and tried to prove her wrong. "I won't tell anyone, I swear! It's just a family secert from now on"  
  
Kira ignored the two bickering and went on before she could force herself to stop. "Some of the paintings Dad sold were made by a man named Ishida Rosya," Kira plowed through the mistake of her life, "and Dad made a lot of money off those, -legally-. But then Dad and Rosya got into this heated argument, which ended up leading to the fact that Rosya would never get Dad another painting. So he came up with this clever idea to make up a daughter for Ishida named Rosie, and he sold five paintings of hers, making a grand deal by the fact that this Rosie was a Rosya"  
  
Sammi slumed against the back of the old couch mumbling to herself, as her eyes grazed at the old cieling. "Invented a daughter? That's nifty" Olivia said looking quite impressed. "No, not nifty" Kira insisted, breathing out her breath she had held throughout her entire explanation and still needing more to go own. She picked up Cocoa, needing some comfort for the next part of her story and Cocoa sighed against her curling up in her lap.   
  
"The painting you sold was the first Rosie, a fake painting by a fake artist. And this is all fraud and we could end up in prison because of a stupid 'nifty' idea my father had. Everyone wil suddenley realize its a fake because Rosya was from a farm in Kentucky in America, and the painting just sold to Ms. Kamiya is a painting of this gallery building."  
  
"I thought it looked slighlty familar" Olivia said brushing down her bright, blonde locks. Kira noticed her odd look, and continued her head venturing to scarth Cocoa's ears. "You know, the minute they find it's a fake, they're going to come to the gallery and ask questions non-stop" Kira felt her stomach cramped, and Cocoa whimpered as her hand went alittle to rough to the sensitive part of her ears. "Then they may attempt for further investigation, which leads to finding out the others are all frauds and they'll all want their money back-- money which we -don't- have. And we'll end up in jail for that and the gallery will be taken from us so we will have no where to live and no where to belong"  
  
Kira managed out the last few words, and tried to hold back from vomiting in fright as she gulped painfully and wished to be put to death, if she had ever lost her Gallery. She eyed Olivia and frowned in confusion as she began to perk up pulling on a blonde lock which signified her thinking. "Wait a minute" her goddaughter exclaimed throwing her hands out, looking unperturbed that her godmother's father was a crook and that she and everyone else would ethier be going to prison or end up freezing, starving, and in a gutter.  
  
"I didn't know it was fake. Only your dad knew, right? So we're off the hook. We can blame him. He's dead!" she grinned mighty pleased with herself.   
  
Sammi sighed as she pushed herself up and heading to her official desk. "That's pretty much the plan we've been following for the last five years, darling" she mentioned sadly, clearing her throat unhappily. "Nice try, Liv, but no" Kira said, feeling her stomach clench as she tried to talk and forced herself to not pet Cocoa so roughly.   
  
"The gallery as a business is still liable. And there's only one other person who knew and could end herself up in jail. The person who painted those Rosie paintings"  
  
"Oh" Olivia bit her lip, and sighed rubbing her bare belly. "Who painted them?"  
  
"I did, of course" Kira mummured unhappily, and stuck her butterfly charm right back in her mouth.  
  
***  
  
A bit interesting, eh? Kira is definately out of character only because she has had a fiancee and is angered. I'll try and make her more in character eh? Don't worry, Rei will be in perfect character. This story was like -made- for these two. Heh.  
  
REVIEW!!!!!  
  
Onto da next chappie  
  
Toodles,  
  
Pandora Rose 


	2. Chapter 2

~ Faking It ~  
  
Written by: Jennifer Crusie  
  
Re-written by: Pandora Rose  
  
Chapter 2  
  
Disclaimer: Mars characters do not belong to me and nethier does this plot ethier, but any characters not familiar do belong to me.  
  
  
  
A/N: Reading and reviewing, I hope?  
  
Now it's Rei's turn. ^.^  
  
Enjoy.  
  
***  
  
It had taken Rei Kashino a week to track down his ex-financial adviser from New York City in America to Tokyo, Japan and now he leaned against the fence of a outside cafe in the city watching the thin, pale man pick at his food, survey his coffee mug and take the napkin to clean it with dismay. His prey. A freak, but yet Rei had found him.  
  
Tenchi Macana was the perfect target for teasing: pale as a ghost, more then one chin, and so smug and stubborn about his superiority to the people around him and in money, art, life in pure general that he was positive that he could con anyone.   
  
Which made it even more damn annoying that he had taken just about all of Rei's money.   
  
Rei hopped over the fence liesurely and ignored the stares as he sauntered through the tables and slid into the empty chair across from Tenchi. The round man had stopped in mid-sip and almost choked on his black coffee as he saw the boyish charming face of the Kashino boy , in one horrified gasp.   
  
"Hi there, Macana. Where the hell is my five million dollars?" Rei laced his voice with the friendliness of a old brother-like friend he tried to fake, and clasped his hands in his grasp and laid them in his lap eyeing Tenchi and enjoying the struggled gargle. Tenchi just continued to choke on horror, guilt, fright, and the scalding hot coffee.  
  
"Oh I'd figure you'd learn a life of crime... just isn't for anybody" Rei insisted good naturedly as he snatched a greasy french fry from Tenchi's plate and winced at how disgusting the flavor of it was. That taste was never going to leave his mouth now. "It's just too risky for you, old boy. You have to enjoy the risk. Your not enjoying the risk, Macana, are you?"   
  
Tenchi gulped for air, striving for the oxygen he lacked from the surprise visit of a old, not-so-friendly buddy. "It's your fault, Rei. Don't put anything on me" Rei gave a devilish grin on his handsome face and ignored the waitress's friendly stare as she swung her hips and modest shaped behind by. He tried to house a friendly face but the glare he was sending to Tenchi had said plenty otherwise. "For not trusting you, Macana? Yes, I have to admit that was of my own fault." he leaned back, pushing his long blonde locks out of his face.   
  
"Good point. I don't plan on doing that again Macana. But I want it all back. Every single piece of money. Even the change" Rei peered down at the plate of fries again and snagged another one. Once you got use to the taste, the fried potatoes were not all that bad. You just had to get use to them. The cook clearly had a odd way of cooking these.   
  
"What are you talking about?! It wasn't even your money, Rei. You conned and stole it" Tenchi gave a heistate and apprehensive glance around the patio of the outdoor cafe and grumbled unhappily. "Where's Sei? You didn't come with him too, did you?" he looked even more unhappy at the fact that Rei's peace minded twin brother wasn't here to stop any unexpected fights that may or may not be let loose.   
  
"Sei's in Miami. Sorry to say, but it'll just be me nagging you and beating you up on my own. And it was my money, dumb ass. I was making it and breaking it all the same way you were doing, through my father's stocks, the same excat stocks you used--"  
  
"But!" Tenchi broke through Rei's agitated speech hurriedly taking his plate away from the french fry stealer. "The million you started with was definately not of your own" The old man justified to the younger one and suddenley Rei was struck of a fleeting memory of beautiful, enraged brunette. "Ahhh.." the young motorcyclist concluded as he fixed his winderbreaker, sticking his greasy hands from his french fries in his pocket. "It's Nadya." he shook his blonde locks in conclusion. "Had a blast with her, I bet"  
  
"You don't even deny it!" Tenchi barked, angrily and defensively as he crossed his arm. "You took that poor woman's inheritance money from her poor deceased father and looked what you did with it and ---!" Rei rolled his eyes and crossed his long legs, getting comfortable. If Macana was wrapped in the heat of Nadya, it was going to take some time to unravel him from it. "That 'woman' is far from poor, she's a plain bitch. She inherited a chunk of cash from her first husband and the last thing I heard she was tanning in the Bahamas with some old rich guy"  
  
"You took her money, theif" Tenchi grumbled, sticking to his high stature of the revelant beauty known as Nadya. "She's innocent." Rei sighed, expecting this and snatched the plate from him, taking the bottled ketchup as he took his hands from the warmth of his pockets. "Look, Macana, I know for a fact she's good in bed. So sue us. But come on. Not even you should believe that" Tenchi gave him quite a hot glare and wrinkled his nose at the young man. "Your talking about the woman I love here, Kashino. I know her"  
  
"Nadya is not the kind of woman you are suppose to fall in love with" Rei said grimly, sounding slightly down at even the tiny thought of it. "She's the kind of woman you think you have this odd emotion called love for you, but then it just turns out you just needed her temproraily until some one else comes along with the option to buy" he stated almost logically as he flipped open the ketchup bottle with ease and drowning the rest of his remaining fries with the blood-like substance.  
  
"I believe in Nadya. She would never do that to me" Tenchi promised, trying not to look as if he had any interest in what Rei was actually saying to him. Rei snorted lightly as he took a ketchup-drenched fry. "Yeah, and you also thought Det-Mind was going to last a lifetime" he shook his head and crossed his arms. "Like my daddy said... if it looks too good to be true---"  
  
"Kashino we are off the topic of money. " Tenchi declared eyeing his stolen plate of fries, and just sipped his warm coffee. "She loves me" Rei just gave another snort and almost felt sorry for the creep. He had no idea what he was wondering into. "If we are talking about Nadya, then hell yeah we're talking about money. It's all she loves and cares for" Tenchi wrinkled his nose at him once more, this time in a more snotty haughty way. "She cares for her art" he stated lightly proud he seemed to know something Kashino didn't know about.   
  
"Art? Your not talking about the two porn flicks and cult movie she did are you? I don't think any one would actually call those art..." Rei smilied lightly recalling the so called memories of such things and shook his head highly amused. Nadya was a screwed one, yes she was. "No" Tenchi insisted slightly confused at the mentioned movies. "Her -actual- art. That's where I met Nadya, I remember excatly. It was at her family's art museum and gallery when I was helping her value her late husband's collection"  
  
"-Late- husband?" Rei gave another laugh, his amusement raising as each word was spoken. This was just such a funny conversation. Not what he had expected at all. "Imagine my surprise." he said dryily shaking his head. "Tenchi, her family doesn't have a art museum and she turned to you when she found out you had access to my accounts. What the last guy die of...?" Rei took a moment looking at Tenchi's mouth, ready to respond before he took over again. "Wait... lemme guess.. Heart attack, right?"  
  
Tenchi's lips dropped suddenley as Rei suspicious suspection was correct. "It was very sudden" he insisted hurriedly, coughing as he gulped down a large spot of coffee to hide any leaked shock. "You know, if I didn't hate your guts, I'd have sympthathy for you. Who is he?" Rei questioned casually taking another french fry without question, no pity at all etched in his attractive face. "Edward Colins." Tenchi replied without thinking and winced as he figured that the young man in front of him -may- be right. "He was her late husband's financial manager. Nadya saw his folk art at a party at his house in Philadelphia"  
  
"And of course shortly after that she got a good look at the rest of him" Rei concluded, sitting back comfortably in the cafe's seats, his low opinion of humanity rising lower as the minutes passed. "What a gal. She's trying to teach herself art to dazzle him into marriage and a early funeral. She was always the honors student"  
  
"Edward is only in his fifties, he isn't that old"   
  
"The one I noticed she killed was in his forties. I gather Edward is her latest victim for her goal in life for grand money?" Rei questioned casually yawning emotion-less. "She didn't kill her husband" Tenchi insisted, letting his finger trail around the top of his coffee cup. "Her late husband died at the age of eighty nine of natural causes. Nadya also didn't concure porn -and-, Nadya, she loves m---"  
  
"Bubbly Suds." was the only word Rei needed. "Set at a waterfall sign in South America. Lots of Bubbles, less clothes. Nadya was back then known as... what was it?... Oh yes Candy Cane. If you don't happen to believe in my recommendations I would be more then happy to drive you down to a Blockbuster"  
  
"Really, Kashino---!!"  
  
"But before we take our random drive to the movie rental palace, you are going to help me get my money back"  
  
Tenchi made a pathethic masquerade of pulling up his chest and straightening heriocly. Yet, nothing was very good at battling down Rei's rebellious stubborn-ness and conning ways. It was worth a try. "I most certainly am not helping you, Rei." The blonde youth sighed heavily, pulling himself up from the iron wrought chair and leaned forward placing a handsome hand on his knotted grasps. He pitied the poor man. He truly did. Tenchi was a sad excuse of man kind.   
  
"You can stop lieing through your teeth now, Macana. I have you wrapped around my finger. The cops will be on you like bees on honey the minute I let anything spill from my lips. I have connections, Tenchi, please don't forget that. I also understand the case with Nadya. I wasted two and a half years on her myself, but don't let her drag you down to the bottom. Your going to help me get -my- money back or your going to spend long weeks in America on vacation... Just think about it. Is she really worth it? Don't forget to consider the fact that she hasn't called you since you've given her my own personal money...."  
  
Tenchi was as silent as the grave throughout Rei's reasonable speech, his fingers twitching nervously around his mug of thick, digusting coffee. Rei watched his face, seeing the guard drop ever so slowly on his face and wheels turning in that big oversized head of his. To bad there was nothing inside the huge skull.   
  
Finally Tenchi managed to sputter a simple statement.   
  
"Bubbly Suds?"  
  
Rei knodded wisely.  
  
"You and she...?"  
  
Another brief knod was delievered to the pale, pudgy man.  
  
"And you think she and Edward...?"  
  
Rei felt his head bob, his sympathy for the moronic, lovesick creep growing heavier.   
  
"Look, Kashino, I don't know how to get your money back" Tenchi broke down after a moment digesting the information and living with his world being turned upside down. "Well, this is your lucky day Macana. I do" Rei gave the man a handsome carved smirk and leaned forward comfortably. "Tell me about Nadya and her so called 'art', please"  
  
With that, Tenchi took a heavy breath and began a grand lecture about Edward Colins and his collection of exotic painting ; how Nadya had followed in Colins lead and was staying with him for pointers for her own collection ; how the beauty promised to call, would ring soon, just as soon as she got some free time on her hands to do it.   
  
'How its possible to be this gullible and lead a life of crime is overly beyond me....' the handsome con man's thoughts ran along these lines, but inside he knew it wasn't right to think that. Nadya was the sort of woman who flattened a man's senses in a heartbeat and a flutter of her elegant lashes. Heaven knew, his had been as flat as a pancake in her presence at one point or another.   
  
Rei allowed Tenchi to rattle on about Nadya, the thought of every man's desire, and just began to ponder. Truthfully, he could just take the easy way out of the situation. Rei could squeeze and wringe Nadya's address and account number from Tenchi, 'borrow' her labtop, go through her hardrive and put in her password -- Nadya being Nadya probably used the same password for almost everything-- and just transfer the money to his account. His conning skills were definately going to come in handy.  
  
Though it was risky and it had more appeal and attraction to him then it probably should. Rei wasn't suppose to be breaking and ripping apart anymore laws. He was straight now, a perfect line. No more immaturity for Rei Kashino. Risks and crime were no longer one bit exciting for him. Boring, unappealing...  
  
"What's the matter?" Tenchi frowned peering at the visibly excitied fidgety con artist.   
  
Rei felt his head shot up unconsciously eyeing the man, reluctantly feeling his heartbeat increase. "What are you talking about, Macana?"  
  
"Your breathing sounds funny. A bit heavy"  
  
Rei shook his head. Yeah, not exciting at all. He didn't even have any authority over his body, let alone his senses!!!  
  
"Asthma," The lie slipped through his lips easily. Experiance did that to you. "hand over her address and her account numbers" Tenchi froze at the words and his finger twitching problem picked up speed. His brow furrowed nervously. "I don't think that's legal there, Rei..."  
  
"Macana" Rei said roughly, all sympathy and sweetness sucked from his voice. "You, yourself, are illegal. That's how you got into this mess anyway, doing stuff like that. Give me those damn numbers" Tenchi watched him and wrinkled his nose as his fidgety hand reached for a pen in his pocket and a napkin from the cafe despinser. Slowly, as if mechanicly, numbers were written in scarthy letters on the flimsy paper.   
  
"Please and Thank you" Rei said poiletely, letting loose his charming grin he held back for persausion purposes and took the napkin in his grasp. Standing up, he shoved the chair back lightly and added, "Don't bother leaving town. Please, don't steal anything else. And for heavensakes, stay away from Nadya"  
  
Tenchi gave a slightly miffed and rattled look. "I'll do whatever I please. I am older then you" Rei just shook his head. Ameatuer. "No" the young man insisted eyeing the trembling miniscule stubborness in Macana. "You won't do anything" Tenchi got one good look at Rei's cold-hearted stare, shuddered, and looked away in defeat. "Good" Rei patted the pudgy shoulder as if rewarding him like a pet. "Just keep your distance from Nadya and everything will just be peachy keen. Smoother roads ahead"  
  
"The only good thing I hope I can squish out of you is that you did steal that money, you thief" Tenchi grumbled his voice laced with failure and lack of victory.   
  
"Of course, I did" Rei said simply and left to rob and steal from the most sexiest woman he'd ever slept with.  
  
Again.  
  
***  
  
Kira had thought that Olivia had bad ideas, but Sammi's plan about breaking into Edward Colin's mansion was definately catching up with her mischevious goddaughter's horridous schemes. Especially when she experianced this supposed dreadful idea by creeping through Edward's hallway in the dark of the night.   
  
She had the right to voice her opinion with her hands on experiance. She really wasn't cut out for this kind of stuff. She was a ex-art forger, not a professional burgler. Plus, the huge place felt creepily empty despite the fact for a caterer and Sammi's dinner party from hell were stationed downstairs. It was too spooky.  
  
'Drama Queen' Harumi would have scolded, but Kira had the personal right to be spooked. She'd searched an empty library, cleared out a billiard, an ugly conservatory, and now was stalking against a barren hallway. 'Miss Rosie in the hall with a brown sack' she thought grumpily. The Irony of the Clue game.   
  
Those were the days. The days of their past and happy, mislead childhoods. When men were men and woman had a good, descent knight in shining armor to steal stuff for them.   
  
'Quit pschying youself out!' Kira chided herself clutching to the brown pillowcase where she was to put the precious, troublesome painting. The lanky girl tiptoed a few steps and found exquisite french doors. Opening it she was lead into another empty room after another. Finally many minutes later she came to a bedroom full of silky drappy things Kira could afford after not eating for nine months.   
  
Perfume clouded the room, hiding any spect of oxygen to breath. The kind of room that would belong to a complete opposite then herself. The perfume could choke someone to death rather then lure any attention otherwise. Sinking in, Kira frowned as her own attention was lured to a glowing object on her elegant magohony make-up table.   
  
Adjusting her eyesight to the dark of the room, she realized it was the careless mistake of someone not shutting down their labtop. 'Oh, yeah, one smart one indeed' Kira thought, guilty for judging a person she'd never met. She scanned and wrinkled her small nose at the things Nadya Antione had and didn't take care of. She definately didn't deserve a Rosie.  
  
A ringing phone breaking the artist's analysis, shot the young woman into a quick hurry, checking the powdered and laced room with the glow of the dim streetlights. The Rosie wasn't all that small. Where in the world did this wretched-perfume-choosing woman stash it? Sighing, Kira brushed a loose auburn lock from her baseball cap and turned to the huge closet on the right as a first choice.   
  
Flipping the doors open, she shoved aside the lovely french designed clothes most likely and checked the endless back of the closet.   
  
A tall, lanky man stood there watching her silently.   
  
Kira felt her muscles clench and her eyes widen. Oh, freackin, dear  
  
She turned to run as quickly as physically possible and he lashed at her, slapping a big hand over her mouth swiftly. Taking her seemingly small body against his extremely lanky one, she kicked back furiously and almost yelped in victory when she connected with his shin.   
  
His curse broke into the heated air and he lost his balance ungracefully, toppling him and her to the carpet floor. Dear God, he weight a ton. "Alright!" the man's thick whisper tickled her ear, while she wriggled against his grasp. She had to get his hand from her mouth before she dead of lack of oxygen. "No need for panic"   
  
'Yeah, no need to panic when I can't BREATHE!!!' Kira thought angrily and hurriedly tried to bring in oxygen through her nose, inhaling thick, dusty carpet. "Because theres really no criminal intention going on. Well, not against you, anyways" he explained calmly. His grip on her was like a anaconda on it's prey.   
  
Her lungs scurnched like a raisin inside her as his hand pressed against her mouth. Her eyes faded dark and light and a familiar terror overwhlemed the breathless woman. "Look, I just need you to promise not to scream" the intruder explained gently.   
  
Suffocation was impending. It was going to be something to do with lack of oxygen, she knew she'd die like this. Though Kira had always imagined it would be from choking on that damned butterfly charm. Not like this. Not in the middle of an illegal act while being jumped by some lowlife closet hermit. Her lungs turned rock-hard, his hand clamped to her mouth and her life faded before her eyes. Kira did the only thing she could physically do.   
  
She forced her mouth opened and chomped down on his big, iron grasp of a hand.  
  
***  
  
Bah, Rei is definately in character. I am glad all of you agree -and- like how Kira's character is. It'll be interesting to know your opinion when it gets more into the story. Even now its harder to stay in control. ^_^  
  
Don't forget that adorable little box below me and tell me how you think on it...  
  
~Pandora Rose 


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